a) I have had the most success running on an older build I got from a torrent ( v2.3, Oct-25-2009 ). I tried running it on the latest that you can download from the above link, I found it to be unstable. YMMV, but the one I am using is from here if that helps.

b) My preference deviations:

Under Setup: 1024 MB of RAM ( probably not that critical )

Under Miscellaneous: Turn off CPU idle, turn on 68k DR Emulator

3) So far, so good. The only issue I have have experienced is sometimes the movies do not play ( you hear audio no video, sometimes they do play ). I just click through the opening credits ( black screens ). The game runs smooth as silk ( playing on a MBP 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM ). I also ran my old Poser 3D and Bryce 3D for giggles, Bryce actually rendered pretty fast.

My current plan is releasing it iOS5 only so it can rely completely on the new asynchronous turn-based GameKit. So, "Fall 2011" unless I decide to abandon that idea in which case maybe a little sooner.